The Trump administration is doubling down on its efforts to deport Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, this time eyeing Liberia as his final destination. In recent legal filings, government officials asked a federal judge to lift a preliminary injunction that currently prevents them from re-detaining and removing the Salvadoran native.
This legal maneuvering follows a chaotic year for Abrego Garcia. Last March, he was mistakenly sent to a high security “mega-prison” in El Salvador, despite a 2019 court order protecting him from returning to his home country due to the threat of gang violence.
While the administration admitted that deportation was an “administrative error” and brought him back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty, ICE is now moving to push him out of the country once more.
While Abrego Garcia has expressed a preference for Costa Rica, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons stated in a court memo that he has “decided to disregard” that request. Lyons argued that immigration laws do not allow a person to pick a new destination years after their initial proceedings concluded.
“Neither the statute nor the regulations permit an alien to designate a country of removal beyond the initial opportunity granted in removal proceedings. If, as here, an alien were permitted to designate a country of removal years after the conclusion of removal proceedings, an alien could avoid ever being removed by endlessly designating new countries of removal,” Lyons wrote.
The administration is also leaning on diplomatic optics to justify the Liberia plan. According to Lyons, a deal has already been brokered with the Liberian government, and breaking it would be a mistake.
Accordingly, after careful consideration, I have decided that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s removal to Costa Rica at this time would be ‘prejudicial to the United States,'” Lyons stated, adding that abandoning the arrangement “could cast doubt on the diplomatic reliability of the United States.
Recent court declarations reveal that the government has already prepared a “mock itinerary” with a removal contractor. If the court rules in their favor, Abrego Garcia could be on a plane to Liberia in as little as five days.
Government attorneys are pressing for a ruling by April 17, arguing that judicial interference in this matter oversteps legal boundaries. “Any attempt by this Court to permanently enjoin the government from exercising its authority to remove the Petitioner from this country is in direct contradiction to established judicial norms, and a clear error of law,” the filing stated.
